If you change your mind in the middle of the evening, do you have to change your underwear? We had an interesting discussion about the merits and problems with this Etsy shop from the people responsible for pranking Victoria’s Secret last year. We’d prefer underwear that says “use your words”- the “ask first” ones on their kickstarter page are cool.

STILL speaking of consent, it’s pretty awful how some (many?) media photographers care so little about even making an attempt at consent in editing.

How does one manage a company “masculinely” or “femininely”? See if you can figure out the problems with this article.

A choice to say “consent-positive” rather than “sex-positive”: “Saying “yes” is framed as empowering and to give one’s consent is “sexy”. Which can and often does imply that a “no” or hesitation is a problem or “less cool/liberated” Hesitation and refusal are totally valid expressions of uncertainty and deserve respect. The framing of “consent is sexy” can, in some applications, invalidate this vital uncertainty.”

Like so many other feminists/people with eyes on the internet, we loved the photo shoot a photographer mother did for her daughter’s fifth birthday, dressing her up as real groundbreaking women instead of Disney princesses:

Angelina Jolie is a badass. As a sex symbol, her employability relies heavily on the appeal of her body, and she looks at a positive BRCA1 result and goes “my life is worth more than my breasts.” (In case anybody doesn’t know, BRCA1 positive cancers are also especially aggressive and especially fatal.)

Sinfest continues its trend of having feminist comics. I’m thrilled by the artist’s recent feminist turnaround… but based on their recent archive, I wish he’d read the piece above, about what sex positive really means (hint: not just a smoke screen for sexists to continue objectifying women). Anyway, here’s a good one:

Some helpful information correcting misconceptions about intersex people in general and the court case in the news recently. Lunas adds: Sometimes doctors perform this surgery soon after birth, sometimes without fully informing the parents. (In this case it’s an adopted child, which further complicates things.) When I have kids, I intend to tell the doctors (in writing) that that I don’t want them altering the child’s genitalia in the event the child is born intersex, and I encourage others to do the same.

From Reyes: “This is pretty dang interesting, especially if you happen to listen to jazz allllll the time. Not that any of us do that. Or nerd out about it. There’s also this sick video linked there. Love it.”

One editor wrote: I think voting for a candidate solely based on gender is a terrible idea (see: Sarah Palin) but I also think the author is using it as a device to make her point, which is that people who have been fighting in the feminist movement for a long time are exhausted and frustrated.

Skylar says: “I’ve seen this pop up a lot on youtube lately and it makes me want to vomit. I appreciate that you want to include men in your marketing of unreasonable beauty standards instead of just women but please just STAHP!”

This article reminds of of Rosie’s True Love Doesn’t Wait piece. The conservative reaction to Elizabeth Smart’s remarks “shows that too many Christians, too many proponents of abstinence-only education, have put their concern for the welfare of a quasi-political movement above their concern for the welfare of a human being, of human dignity itself.”

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4 thoughts on “What we’re reading 5/18/13”

I was really struck by the article about nonconsensual pelvic exams, and, as a third-year medical student, I’ve got to say that I have NEVER had that experience. Obviously this is anecdotal, but so is the piece that you linked, and i just want people to know that this doesn’t happen to every med student and everyy Ob/Gyn patient. My Ob/Gyn rotation residents and attending physicians were very sensitive about clarifying to patients that we, as med students, were in training but would be assisting in their care and physical exams, and students always made sure to introduce ourselves and ask patients’ permission to participate in their care, prior to any anesthesia or dramatic changes that could impair rational thinking (such as onset of labor, for example).
Yes, male medical students sometimes have a smaller chance of patients agreeing to their participation in care, but not always by as dramatic a margin as the author saw at her program. Furthermore, the Ob/Gyn department at my program was very clear that there was only to be one med student for each patient, that the med student had to meet the patient and get consent- via translation service if necessary- before participating in their exam/surgery/delivery/care provision, and that the only student who would have the opportunity to work with or examine that patient would be the one who had obtained such consent. There was no “lining up” of multiple students for a chance to do a pelvic exam, and no ignoring the patients’ wishes. I can’t emphasize enough that there are ways to fix the system the author describes, and that this issue does not happen everywhere. For all I know, my program’s aggressive sensitivity toward this issue came out of objections to practices like this, but I’ve got to say, it feels like they’ve always been a part of the culture.
Finally, I’ve got to object to this part:”Medical school has a cult-like atmosphere. You’re all immersed in this one lifestyle, you’re sleep deprived, you’re not eating enough, you’re all dressed the same. So, when you’re presented with something of questionable morality, you have no time to introspect or self-reflect or think about it….You go along with the team and go with the culture of medicine.”
Look, med school can be exhausting, yeah. I’ve had my share of 14-hour days, and that’s pretty normal. But it is by no means impossible to stay a person under all that, and I have a problem with the implication that such stressors are enough to make me forget the principles of bodily autonomy.

Thank you for sharing your experiences, and adding another perspective on this issue. It’s good to know it isn’t happening everywhere, but honestly, I think even if it only happens at one hospital, that’s too much.